Tech steps up immigration outreach

It’s go time for the tech industry as the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to take up part of the Gang of Eight bill near and dear to Silicon Valley’s heart: H-1B visas.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg weighed in personally last week, according to sources, calling the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a committee member who is sponsoring amendments to ease the bill’s restrictions on the use of H-1Bs. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and other tech executives are also calling Senate offices as the committee prepares to resume its markup of the legislation this week, industry sources said.

Story Continued Below

The direct outreach is part of an intensifying campaign by Silicon Valley to shape and push immigration reform — particularly the high-skilled portion that goes directly to tech companies’ recruiting and hiring practices. It also reflects the industry’s growing footprint in Washington, where tech companies and groups are spending record amounts on lobbying on a broad range of issues spanning immigration to cybersecurity to online privacy.

While tech leaders are happy with some parts of the Gang of Eight bill, such as freeing up available green cards and increasing the number of temporary visas, they are frustrated with a raft of new restrictions that are included in the legislative package.

The bill would require all companies that use the visas to advertise available jobs on a Department of Labor website and to offer openings to U.S. applicants who are equally or better-qualified than foreign workers. Employers with 15 percent or more H-1B visa holders would have to attest they have taken good-faith steps to recruit U.S. workers. The provisions would also greatly restrict companies’ ability to place H-1B workers at client sites.

The tech executives’ message to senators is not subtle: We wouldn’t be able to use the temporary visa program, no matter how many are available, given the restrictions in the bill. And, the executives say, we have other options, such as moving more key engineering work to satellite offices overseas.

“Our choice isn’t between legal and nonlegal immigrants like it has been for the ag industry,” said one industry representative. “We’re going to hire legal but in other countries. That’s what is at risk.”

Facebook declined to talk about Zuckerberg’s conversations with members of Congress. But in a statement, Joel Kaplan, the firm’s vice president of U.S. policy, said the industry is working on a “bipartisan basis to ensure that provisions of the bill don’t have unintended consequences that might undermine the purpose of the bill.”

Critics of tech’s position argue that Senate negotiators should hold the line on the restrictions.

“The base bill was more than generous,” said Andrea Zuniga DiBitetto, legislative representative at the AFL-CIO. “The tech industry is, frankly, being greedy. They are going back and asking for changes to language they helped write and blatantly trying to roll back requirements that give high-skilled American workers a fair shot at getting a job.”

“I hope the Judiciary Committee will stand strong and reject changes that give employers a green light to fire or bypass qualified American workers,” she said.